Former EastEnders star Gillan Taylforth, who was evicted from the show last week, let the cat out of the bag during an appearance on Channel 5's The Wright Stuff.

She told host Matthew Wright that the contestants, who are not allowed watches or clocks, would try to judge the time in several different ways including noting when it started to go dark.

She then added: "And then Rylan went out to do X Factor rehearsals for the tour he's doing and when he came back, obviously he wasn't allowed to talk to anybody, but when he came back he just asked somebody the time very quickly."

Contestants in the show are meant to be isolated in the Big Brother house and denied access to the outside world.

A spokeswoman for the show refused to say how many times Rylan had left the house or for how long, saying: "Rylan has rehearsed for his tour on site with a choreographer, escorted by a Big Brother producer."

Former Big Brother contestant Narinder Kaur was one of many fans who went online to complain about the news.

Writing on Twitter, she said: "IF its true that Rylan has been leaving the BB house for X Factor rehearsals then there's NO WAY he deserves to win! That's the whole point!!

"Ch 5 have confirmed that Rylan HAS been leavin the house!! BANG out of order & against the no.1 rule of BB! Rylan NOT to win!! Get him out!"

Another fan of the show, Megg Hester, said on Twitter: "Rylan has been leaving CBB to go to xfactor tour rehearsals.. swear that contradicts the whole point of the show lmao."